What Made You Decide That You Wanted to be Catholic?
I initially didn’t want anything to do with Catholicism. I had seen the fruits of those who had claimed to be Catholic, and all I saw was hypocrisy and apathy. I was a Protestant who had a born-again deeper experience the week before I had entered high school. And my public high school did have a Christian Bible Study as a school club, where in my senior year I had become president, and grew in my disdain for Catholic doctrine.
Then a number of strange things happened. First, in college, I found myself involved with a Christian group that was heavily involved with the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. Then, my own mother purchased for me a religious best seller about Marian apparitions (which she got on a lark). And I found myself in many private debates about doctrine, where for once I got to hear the Scriptural understanding of why the Catholic doctrine advocates all sorts of beliefs—the papacy, Confession, Marian devotion, etc.
Soon enough I began praying the rosary as a Protestant, and getting a lot of spiritual benefits from the practice. I began seeing the importance of a liturgical approach of worship. I saw a complementariness between structure and spontaneity. And, throughout college, I became known as the best Catholic apologist (who just so happened to not be Catholic).
I held strong to not be Catholic for three extra years… but when my final doctrinal hangups collapsed, I found myself longing to receive Christ in the Eucharist more than ever before. I knew I had to make the jump across the Tiber, even though it was to part ways from the many blessings from the religious traditions that I had become accustomed to at that point. But I made that jump, and while at times it was hard (especially when I moved from college, and lacked the support of fellow Catholics in my age group), it was still so entirely worth it.
originally answered on Quora.com